4 Tips For Organizing Your Storage Unit

Renting a storage unit is a great way to clear some space in your home or store items safely during a transitional period between residences. However, if you aren't careful, your storage unit can quickly become a jumbled mess. Messy storage units are magnets for bugs and pests, and items that you want to preserve can easily become damaged in a cluttered, disorganized storage unit. Here are some tips to help you start organizing your storage unit right from the start.

Size Matters

Once common reason for disorganization and clutter in a storage unit is overcrowding. It's very difficult to effectively organize your items if you have too many items stored in too small a space. Avoid space constraints by ensuring that the unit you rent is large enough for your needs.

Asking the storage facility staff for guidance when choosing your unit can help a lot. Let them know what you plan to store, and ask to see units in several sizes. If you're not sure, it's better to err on the side of a unit that's too big, rather than too small. Even if you end up with extra space, chances are good that the longer you keep the unit, the more items you'll find to fill in any extra space.

Pack Smart

When it comes to packing up items to be moved into storage, pay attention when choosing boxes and containers. Don't use secondhand cardboard boxes that you picked up free from the grocery store. It's not worth the risk that the boxes might be carrying bugs or their eggs, for one thing. For another, they'll be less sturdy than new boxes, which increases the chance of them breaking open in storage.

For the easiest and safest stacking, invest in sturdy plastic containers with strong removable lids. If that's not a possibility, at least buy new cardboard boxes, and stack like-sized boxes together.

Use Your Wall Space

If you have a garage or a workshop, you almost certainly have some type of corkboard or pegboard that you can use to hang certain items. These are common very common precisely because they're space savers – you can eliminate several boxes worth of stuff by hanging it on the wall, and the hanging items are easy to reach and access if you need them.

This wall-hanging strategy works just as well in storage units as it does in garages or workshops. Don't overlook the wall space available in your storage unit – use it to your advantage. Hang tools on a pegboard, or slide documents that you want easy access to into plastic protectors and tack them in place on a corkboard.

Map Out Your Storage Space

Mess in a storage space is frequently caused after you move in, when you need to rummage for some item that you've stored. If you know where things are, you'll be able to avoid this kind of mess. You can do this by color coding your boxes, and making a map so that you remember where things are.

For example, you may decide that kitchen items will be blue. So, you can pack the kitchen items in blue boxes, or draw a blue circle on the boxes that contain kitchen items, or stick a blue sticky note on any boxes containing kitchen items. Then, you may decide to store all of the boxes marked with blue in the southwest corner of the storage unit. Make a simple map that indicates where the blue boxes can be found, and you should easily be able to locate your kitchen items when you need them. Try to store items that you'll need more frequently in the front of the unit, or where ever they can be easily accessed.

With a little advance planning, you can have a neat and organized storage unit. It's worth taking the time to plan strategies to control clutter, for your convenience and for the protection of your valuable items. For more tips, ask a company like 1st Stop Storage.


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